The American cocktail, it’s often said, is in the midst of a renaissance. Drinks from musty old manuals are now staples on bar menus. A time traveler from the early twentieth century, however, might find today’s classic cocktails unfamiliar. Contemporary bartenders have tweaked their fizzes, juleps and Collins for modern tastes.

The Times-Picayune Archive Cure at 4905 Freret Street offers New Orleanians a modern escape with well-made cocktails. At “Bartending by the Book” on Saturday, May 15, from 5-7 p.m., Cure (4905 Freret St.) will mix four drinks exactly as they were done in the days after Prohibition. The stinger, the St. Charles punch, the daiquiri cocktail and the Vieux Carre cocktail will be made with recipes from Stanley Clisby Arthur’s “Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ‘em,” first published in 1937.

No matter how closely Cure’s bartenders follow Clisby Arthur’s instructions, it may be impossible to faithfully recreate these 60-year-old recipes.

“Sometimes there were different ingredients,” said Neal Bodenheimer, owner of Cure. “Sugar was different. What kind of limes were they using back then?”

Bodenheimer believes some of these drinks, like the stinger and the St. Charles punch, deserve to be modern classics and not just historical curiosities.

“Bartending by the Book” benefits the Museum of the American Cocktail and New Orleans Culinary and Cultural Preservation Society.